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<h1><a href="https://archiveofourown.org/works/26688376">dog days</a> by <a class='authorlink' href='https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/pseuds/GallifreyanFairytale'>GallifreyanFairytale</a></h1>

<table class="full">

<tr><td><b>Category:</b></td><td>Avatar: The Last Airbender</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Genre:</b></td><td>Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Azula is a Good Sister, Established Sokka/Zuko (Avatar), Fluff, Hurt/Comfort, M/M, Mentions of Blood, Minor Injuries, azula and zuko live with iroh, druk is a dog</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Language:</b></td><td>English</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Status:</b></td><td>Completed</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Published:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Updated:</b></td><td>2020-09-28</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Packaged:</b></td><td>2021-05-06 04:07:31</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Rating:</b></td><td>Teen And Up Audiences</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Warnings:</b></td><td>No Archive Warnings Apply</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Chapters:</b></td><td>1</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Words:</b></td><td>4,507</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Publisher:</b></td><td>archiveofourown.org</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Story URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/works/26688376</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Author URL:</b></td><td>https://archiveofourown.org/users/GallifreyanFairytale/pseuds/GallifreyanFairytale</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Summary:</b></td><td><div class="userstuff">
              <p>sokka volunteers to dogsit while iroh drags zuko and azula on a "family bonding trip". </p><p>it goes perfectly fine for sokka, until it doesn't.</p>
            </div></td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Relationships:</b></td><td>Azula &amp; Zuko (Avatar), Sokka/Zuko (Avatar)</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Comments:</b></td><td>18</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Kudos:</b></td><td>239</td></tr>

<tr><td><b>Collections:</b></td><td>Angst and Hurt/Comfort Prompts</td></tr>

</table>

<a name="section0001"><h2>dog days</h2></a>
<div class="story"><div class="fff_chapter_notes fff_head_notes"><b>Author's Note:</b><ul class="associations">



        <li>In response to a prompt by
            <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/users/27twinsister/pseuds/27twinsister">27twinsister</a>  in the  <a href="https://archiveofourown.org/collections/angstandhcprompts">angstandhcprompts</a>
          collection.
        </li>
    </ul><blockquote class="userstuff">
      <p>prompt:<br/><em>Any fandom!</em><br/><em>Character A gets mildly hurt (scraped their knee, got a paper cut, have a headache, small things) and other characters find out they’re hurt and completely overreact.</em><br/><em>Bonus if they other characters aren’t physically there and all they can do is frantically text/call asking if A is okay.</em></p><p>this may or may not be based on something that actually happened to me but that is Not Relevant so anyway hope you enjoy!!</p><p>tw for minor injuries including mentions of blood and descriptions of bruises. also mentions of broken bones, but no one breaks any bones in this fic.</p>
    </blockquote></div><div class="userstuff module">
    
    <p>It wasn’t supposed to be a big thing.</p><p> </p><p>Iroh was dragging Zuko and Azula on some <em> family bonding weekend trip </em> that he insisted would be good for the three of them. It had been almost four years since the two had moved in with their uncle, so Sokka wasn’t sure <em> why </em>a family bonding weekend trip was necessary, but no one argued with Iroh.</p><p> </p><p>The issue was Druk. Zuko’s puppy was probably the most adorable dog on the planet in Sokka’s opinion (not that he would admit that to Aang and Appa), but he was only a puppy and shouldn’t be left alone overnight. And whatever cabin in the woods Iroh was dragging his niece and nephew to didn’t allow dogs. </p><p> </p><p>So Sokka had stepped up and volunteered to just stay the night at Zuko’s while they were gone and watch Druk. He could feed and walk Druk, water Iroh’s plants, and spent one glorious night away from his sister, who had coincidentally invited Toph over the same night Zuko would be gone. It was the perfect plan.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Friday afternoon, Sokka drives Zuko and Azula home and watches as they gather their bags and pile them into Iroh’s car from the 90s that runs on miracles alone. Once the car is packed, Azula tells Sokka, “If the car finally gives out and Zuko dies, you’re taking Druk home with you.” Iroh thanks Sokka for volunteering to housesit/dogsit and tells him everything in the pantry and fridge are free reign (and Sokka will definitely hold him to that offer). Zuko kisses him goodbye and promises to text once they arrived as long as he has service. And then they're off, speeding down the road in Iroh’s beat up Honda, leaving Sokka and Druk alone.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka isn't worried. He spends as much time at Zuko’s house as he does his own, and Druk had taken to Sokka as soon as they met for the first time. This is probably the best way Sokka could hope to spend his weekend since spending time with Zuko is out of the question. It's time to relax, do his homework without Katara or his dads interrupting him, and maybe watch a few more episodes of <em> The Good Place</em>. </p><p> </p><p>(Granted, instead of doing his homework or watching <em> The Good Place</em>, Sokka ends up scrolling through Twitter for two hours, then rummaging through the pantry for a solid fifteen minutes before inevitably not deciding to eat anything.)</p><p> </p><p>Zuko texts him two and half hours after their departure, and the rumbling in Sokka’s stomach is immediately forgotten.</p><p> </p><p><b> <em>zuko &lt;3: </em> </b> <em> we got here an hour ago, but just managed to connect to the wi-fi. service is rly bad :( </em></p><p><b> <em>zuko &lt;3: </em> </b> <em> anyway we’re in a cabin on some campground and apparently there are OTHER FAMILIES here that we’re going to be FORCED to interact with which ofc uncle neglected to mention to us </em></p><p><b> <em>zuko &lt;3: </em> </b> <em> anyway wish azula and i luck and if we accidentally harm a small child bc they won’t stop screaming, that’s on them </em></p><p> </p><p>Sokka rolls his eyes and responds with, <em> please do not maim any children and i will keep you and azula in my thoughts &amp; prayers during this truly trying time</em>. </p><p> </p><p>He and Zuko send a few more texts back and forth before Zuko is drug away to dinner, and Sokka sets out to make some food for himself and feed Druk.</p><p> </p><p>It’s a little after seven when things go downhill. Druk needs to go outside, and Sokka (like the brilliant mastermind he is) sees Zuko’s Nike slides sitting by the door, and those look a whole lot easier to slip on for a quick walk than his Converse. </p><p> </p><p>They’re a little small on Sokka, but not small enough that he’s worried about his feet stretching them out. He decides not to bother putting a leash on Druk (the yard is big enough, the road isn’t busy at this time, and Druk is well behaved enough to listen to Sokka when it’s time to go inside) and opens the door, allowing Druk to run outside ahead of him. </p><p> </p><p>Druk sniffs Iroh’s rose bushes and Sokka gently nudges him away from them because he knows how much Iroh prides himself on his roses. Druk reluctantly leaves the roses behind and trots across the yard. Sokka trails behind him, phone in hand, reading the caption of Aang’s latest Instagram post.</p><p> </p><p>And then it happens.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka sees a flash of brown, but he’s too far away to grab onto Druk’s collar, and he can’t get his voice to call out for Druk fast enough.</p><p> </p><p>Druk takes off, dashing towards the creature (whether it’s a rabbit, squirrel, or something else, Sokka isn’t sure.) Sokka doesn’t think; he just takes off running after Druk, calling out for him and hoping he doesn’t chase the other animal into the neighbor’s yard or out onto the road.</p><p> </p><p>But Sokka is not wearing shoes he should be chasing a dog around in.</p><p> </p><p>He feels the shoe on his right foot catch against the ground as he’s crossing the driveway, and everything slows down. Sokka knows what’s coming, but it’s too late to stop the inevitable, so all he can do is brace himself.</p><p> </p><p>His right knee absorbs most of the impact, then his right hand hits the edge of the pavement and somehow, his body twisted oddly enough over the course of the fall that his left hip hits the ground hard too.</p><p> </p><p>For a moment, he just lays there, silently surveying the damage. His knee hurts, but it’s probably just skinned. He’s fallen off his bike enough that it’s not an abnormal injury. His hip stings, and he’s not even sure when that part of his body made contact with the ground. His hand--</p><p> </p><p>
  <em> Oh no. </em>
</p><p> </p><p>His hand is still holding his phone, facedown. It’s in the grass now, but his hand definitely skidded across the pavement because it is <em> on fire</em>. He doesn’t want to look, but he knows he has to.</p><p> </p><p>Carefully, slowly, like it’s a bomb about to go off, Sokka turns his phone around to look at the screen, expecting a spider web of cracks to be running jagged at every angle. Instead, he finds only a few dinged up spots that are hopefully only screen protector deep. He silently thanks Katara for forcing him to put on a screen protector in the first place.</p><p> </p><p>His eyes drop to the bottom of his palm, and he grimaces. The left corner is scraped up, but he can’t tell how deep it is because there’s so much grit and dirt from the pavement stuck to it. He’ll need to clean that out so it doesn’t get infected.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka takes a deep breath. <em> In, out</em>. He pushes himself to his feet and looks down at the ground. There’s no blood on the driveway, which is a good sign. His eyes rake up his leg to his knee, expecting to see blood on his sweatpants. He’s greeted with a hole instead and really, he shouldn’t be as surprised as he is. These pants are cheap and thin and he only keeps them around to sleep in, but he still feels his heart drop. Blood, he could probably get out. But a hole like this isn’t something he can just stitch up without it looking trashy, and it probably isn’t worth the effort anyways. He’s just going to have to throw them away.</p><p> </p><p>Or maybe he’ll see if Katara wants to cut them into shorts and keep them to sleep in. She’s been on a thrift flip kick recently.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka turns to his third injury; his hip. He half expects to find another hole there, but he’s lucky this time. He lowers his waistband just below his injury. It’s definitely not as bad as his knee and since the fabric didn’t tear, there’s no dirt in it. At least he has that going for him.</p><p> </p><p>Now that he’s taken account of his injuries, he looks up to locate Druk. The dog on the edge of Iroh’s property, sniffing at a tree. Sokka goes to take a step towards him, but his knee does <em> not </em>like that idea, so he calls out instead. “Druk! C’mon buddy, let’s go inside!”</p><p> </p><p>Thankfully, Druk listens. He trots over to Sokka and follows him and Sokka hobbles back towards the house. He feels like he might be being a <em> teensy </em>bit over dramatic in his limping, but he’s also not sure why he would be. To make Druk feel bad?</p><p> </p><p>As soon as he’s inside, Sokka collapses into one of the chairs in the kitchen and opens his phone. He can better survey the damage now. There are a few scratches running across the screen protector, a few spots that look like pinpricks, and the bottom corner by the home button is cracked, but it doesn’t look like anything a new screen protector won’t take care of. The corner of his phone case is scuffed up too, but he can deal with that.</p><p> </p><p>He almost texts Zuko, but decides better of it. Zuko will worry too much. So he texts Azula instead.</p><p> </p><p><b> <em>me: </em> </b> <em> where are your band-aids/neosporin/first aid kit? </em></p><p><b> <em>azula: </em> </b> <em> what did you do </em></p><p><b> <em>azula: </em> </b> <em> bathroom cupboard next to the sink, bottom shelf. should be in a tub with a blue(??) lid </em></p><p><b> <em>azula: </em> </b> <em> but seriously what did you do </em></p><p><b> <em>me: </em> </b> <em> druk saw a rabbit or something and i started to chase after him, but i put on zuko’s shoes to walk him and i tripped </em></p><p><b> <em>me: </em> </b> <em> it’s nbd, no broken limbs or anything, just a few scrapes </em></p><p><b> <em>me: </em> </b> <em> druk is also fine, he didn’t run off or anything </em></p><p> </p><p>Sokka sets his phone down. He slips his (technically Zuko’s) shoes off and looks at them. <em> They </em>still appear to be perfectly fine.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka pushes himself up and makes his way over to the sink. His first order of business needs to be washing out his hand. He grabs a hand towel and turns the water on. He sticks his hand under the water first, letting it run over the injury and washing away any loose dirt. Then, he takes the towel and starts trying to work the rest of the grit out of his injury. It stings, but it’s better than letting it sit and get infected.</p><p> </p><p>After his hand is cleaned out (or as clean as it’s going to get at the moment), he can better judge the severity of the injury. It’s not deep, and there’s only a few pinpricks where the skin broke enough for any blood to come through. It really should <em> not </em>be causing as much pain as it is, but Sokka doesn’t have time to argue with his hand about how bad it should be hurting. He moves his wrist around, just to double check that he didn’t injure it. Apparently he's heard enough stories of people bracing their falls with their hands and ending up with broken wrists, because his wrist feels perfectly fine. Meaning, as he suspected, the impact was mostly absorbed by his knee.</p><p> </p><p>Confident his hand is okay, he moves the towel back under the water and rinses it out. He wets a clean spot, shuts the water off, and makes his way back to the chair. He dabs around his knee injury, trying to clean it out as best as he can. It’s already bruising and Sokka, quite frankly, has no idea if he’ll even be able to find a band-aid big enough to cover it. But he’ll worry about that later.</p><p> </p><p>Once his knee is cleaned out, he tosses the towel in the sink and considers what to do next. He needs to get band-aids and Neosporin on his injuries, but he’s also clearly going to need to change pants. A change of shirt would probably be a good idea too since the one he’s currently wearing has dirt on it.</p><p> </p><p>He sighs and limps to Zuko’s bedroom, sure Zuko won’t mind if he borrows a pair of pajama pants and a t-shirt.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka pulls out a pair of black sweatpants and an old Jasmine Dragon t-shirt, from when Iroh first decided his tea shop needed its own merch line. He changes clothes and rolls up his right pant leg to above his knee, then makes his way over to the bathroom.</p><p> </p><p>He opens the cupboard and stares down at the bottom shelf. Of course it had to be the bottom shelf.</p><p> </p><p>Eventually, Sokka decides to just sit down and figure out if he can get himself back up on his feet after he’s tended to his wounds. He pulls the tub with the blue lid out from the cupboard and opens it. Sure enough, there’s an array of bandages and ointment inside.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka decides to wrap gauze around the injury on his hand, mostly to keep anything from getting in it, and because he knows his hands will sweat enough that a band-aid will come off in a matter of minutes. After he wraps his hand, he finds a box of big band-aids and sticks one on his hip and one on his knee. The one on his knee barely covers the entire part that was skinned, and it definitely doesn’t cover the part that’s bruising, but it’s good enough.</p><p> </p><p>He piles the supplies back in the tub, but decides to leave it out for when he’ll need to change his band-aids tomorrow. He manages to pull himself back up without too much struggle and swings the cupboard door shut. He trudges back out to the kitchen and grabs his phone, only to be met with no less than sixteen missed FaceTime calls from Zuko as well as several unread messages.</p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>azula</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> i didn’t mean to let zuko find out my b </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>azula</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> would you call him back though he’s kinda freaking out </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> ARE YOU OKAY??? </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> sokka? </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> SOKKA???? </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> do you need me to call katara or your dads?? </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> ANSWER YOUR PHONE I’M WORRIED </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> Sokka </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> SOKKA </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> sokka please i’m really worried for you please answer </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> azula says you’re probably just looking for the band-aids or something but PLEASE ANSWER </em>
</p><p>
  <b> <em>zuko &lt;3</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> sokka i really am worried for you please answer your phone </em>
</p><p> </p><p>
  <b> <em>katara :[</em> </b>
</p><p>
  <em> would you call ur bf back he’s being annoying </em>
</p><p> </p><p>Before Sokka can respond to any of his messages, his phone rings again, Zuko’s contact photo coming up on the screen. Sokka answers it and braces himself.</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p>
  <em>twenty minutes earlier, at the family bonding weekend campsite</em>
</p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>“Your boyfriend is the stupidest person I’ve ever met,” Azula says out of the blue. She doesn’t even look up from her phone. They’re sitting at a picnic table, their dinners mostly gone. Uncle is talking to someone who is supposedly an old friend, and Zuko and Azula are waiting for him to be done. They're pointedly refusing to try to ‘make friends with the other teenagers’ as Uncle had suggested. For once, they're completely okay with only each other for company.</p><p> </p><p>Zuko laughs. “Tell me something I don’t know.” Then he realizes that <em> something </em>must have prompted this statement. “Wait, did he text you?”</p><p> </p><p>“No!”</p><p> </p><p>“You’re a terrible liar. What did he say?” Zuko moves around to the same side of the table Azula is sitting at and tries to grab her phone.</p><p> </p><p>“Nothing!” She shoves Zuko away and holds her phone out of reach.</p><p> </p><p>“Why are you being so weird?” Zuko frowns. “Did something happen?”</p><p> </p><p>“Uh--”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>I</em><em>s he okay?! </em>” Zuko lunges for Azula’s phone, and this time she lets him take it. Zuko opens her conversation with Sokka, fearing the worst. Surely Azula would have told him if anything too bad happened though, right?</p><p> </p><p>“He just tripped--” Azula starts, but Zuko’s already read Sokka’s conversation with her.</p><p> </p><p>“<em>He got hurt?! </em>” Zuko stands up, and then realizes there isn’t exactly anywhere he can go. Uncle will definitely notice if Zuko steals his car and drives the hour and a half back home (though he’s still loosely considering it), and Azula looks ready to dig her fingernails into his arm in order to make him stay.</p><p> </p><p>“He said it wasn’t a big deal,” Azula tries to reason with him.</p><p> </p><p>“‘Not a big deal’ for Sokka sometimes means ‘Actually a very big deal’,” Zuko points out. “Don’t you remember the time he broke his ankle and was convinced it was just bruised? Hakoda and Katara had to trick him into getting an x-ray by taking him to get ice cream first.”</p><p> </p><p>“And he learned his lesson to not underestimate his injuries,” Azula says. She grabs Zuko’s arm and pulls him back down to the bench. “So before you steal Uncle’s car and end up crashing on the highway, why don’t you FaceTime Sokka and see for yourself that he’s fine?”</p><p> </p><p>Zuko slumps down. “<em>Fine</em>. But I’m not completely giving up the ‘stealing Uncle’s car’ idea yet.”</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p>
  <em>sixteen missed facetime calls and ten anxious texts later, back at Iroh's house</em>
</p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>“SOKKA!” Zuko exclaims as soon as the call connects. Sokka smiles at the sight of his boyfriend. “Are you okay?!”</p><p> </p><p>“I’m fine, babe.”</p><p> </p><p>“Can you walk? Did you brace yourself with your hand? Is your wrist hurting? I’m not above stealing Uncle’s car and coming back to take you to the ER. Are you--”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Zuko</em>,” Sokka interrupts. Zuko stops talking. “I’m fine, I promise. I banged up my knee, but I can still walk fine. I did brace myself with my hand, but my wrist isn’t hurting at all, I promise. I just scraped up my palm and my phone got a few scratches, but I should just need a new screen protector. I scraped up my hip too somehow, but that one’s not as bad as my knee. I’m fine, I promise.”</p><p> </p><p>Zuko takes a deep breath. “Okay. Okay. Sorry, I’m just worried.”</p><p> </p><p>“Hey, don’t apologize.” Sokka shifts in his chair.</p><p> </p><p>Zuko narrows his eyes. “Are you wearing my shirt?”</p><p> </p><p>“Oh.” Sokka looks down at the shirt he has on. “Yeah. Mine got all dirty. Also I ripped my pant leg, so I stole a pair of your pants too.”</p><p> </p><p>Sokka hears Azula say, “Gross,” somewhere offscreen.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka can’t help himself. “If you want to see something <em> actually </em>gross, you should look at my knee.”</p><p> </p><p>“I thought you said it wasn’t bad!” Zuko exclaims. He went from <em>B</em><em>egrudgingly accepting that Sokka is okay </em> to <em> Once again ready to steal Iroh’s car </em>real fast.</p><p> </p><p>“Zuko, I’ve had plenty of skinned knees in my life.” He looks down at his knee. What he can see of the bruise peeking out from under the band-aid is an odd combination of purples and yellows. “This one just came with a giant bruise. It’s no biggie.”</p><p> </p><p>Zuko looks about ready to combust. “<em>Sokka</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Zuko</em>.”</p><p> </p><p>“For Agni’s sake!” Azula grabs the phone from Zuko. “Can you put weight on your leg?”</p><p> </p><p>“<em>Yes</em>,” Sokka insists. He stands up. It hurts, but mostly because he has to straighten his leg out completely. Holding up weight is not the issue. “It’s not broken, I promise. I’ve had a broken bone before, and this does not feel like that.” He begins walking towards the living room. “You wanna see the hole in my pants?”</p><p> </p><p>“Why would I want to see that?” Azula snips.</p><p> </p><p>“I wasn’t talking to you,” Sokka shoots back.</p><p> </p><p>Azula rolls her eyes and hands the phone back to Zuko. Zuko turns the phone sideways so Sokka can see both him and Azula. “Sure, show us the hole in your pants,” Zuko says.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka does his best to not limp as he makes his way back to Zuko’s bedroom, where he left his shirt and pants in a heap on Zuko’s bed. He plops down on the bed and grabs his pants. As he searches for the hole, Azula says, “Aw, Zuzu, how does it feel knowing your boyfriend is in your bed and you’re not even there?”</p><p> </p><p>Zuko goes red and out of the corner of his eye, Sokka sees him elbow his sister. “Don’t say things like that!” he hisses.</p><p> </p><p>Azula pops back into frame, hardly looking fazed. She brushes a strand of hair behind her ear. “Whatever you say. So Mr. Hole-In-My-Pants, where <em> is </em> this hole you seem so proud of?”</p><p> </p><p>“Right!” Sokka flips the camera around to show Zuko and Azula the nearly perfect circle torn in the knee of his sweatpants. “Do you think Katara would want to thrift flip them? Or should I just throw them away?”</p><p> </p><p>“Why would your sister want your smelly, holey, pants?” Azula wrinkles her nose.</p><p> </p><p>“I would <em> wash them first</em>, obviously.” Okay, maybe Sokka would hand them over to Katara without washing them just to see her reaction, but if she <em> actually </em>wanted to crop them or whatever, he would wash them for her. “And because she’s obsessed with upcycling thanks to Aang. She might take them from me just to stop me from throwing them away, to be honest…” Sokka flips the camera back around. “So how’s family bonding weekend?”</p><p> </p><p>Zuko and Azula roll their eyes in sync. “Uncle is talking to one of his friends, so I wouldn’t say he’s even part of family bonding time,” Zuko says.</p><p> </p><p>Azula’s eyes widen. “Spirits, maybe that was the point!”</p><p> </p><p>“What?” Sokka and Zuko chorus.</p><p> </p><p>“He was planning on ditching us to talk to his friends so <em> we </em>were forced to either bond with each other or make new friends. And Uncle knows neither of us make new friends very well.” Azula shoots a glare at something offscreen and Sokka realizes it must be directed at Iroh. She mutters something under her breath.</p><p> </p><p>“Don’t say that,” Zuko scolds. “We don’t know for sure that that was Uncle’s plan.”</p><p> </p><p>“Full offense, but I’m not going to listen to the guy who wanted to steal a thirty-year-old car and drive 90 the whole way home just because his boyfriend scraped his knee.”</p><p> </p><p>“That has literally nothing to do with this!”</p><p> </p><p>Sokka watches Zuko and Azula bicker for a few moments before an incoming call interrupts them. “I’m gonna have to go,” he says. “Katara’s calling. Talk to you later, babe.”</p><p> </p><p>“Can’t Katara wait?” Zuko whines.</p><p> </p><p>“You know that’s a solid no.”</p><p> </p><p>Zuko sighs. “<em>Fine</em>. Talk to you later.”</p><p> </p><p>Sokka ends the call with Zuko and accepts the call from Katara.</p><p> </p><p>“Did you call Zuko back?” is the first thing she says.</p><p> </p><p>“Yes, I talked to him and Azula. I don’t know what he told you, but I’m fine.” Sokka leans back on the bed, careful not to jostle his knee too much.</p><p> </p><p>“Are you sure?” Katara sounds skeptical. “Remember when you broke your ankle and--”</p><p> </p><p>“Yes,” Sokka interrupts. “I remember. You never let me forget it. But I promise I’m fine. I literally just tripped and fell. My knee took more of the impact than my hand, so I didn’t break my wrist and I can still stand on both legs so I didn’t break my knee. You and Zuko both need to worry less.”</p><p> </p><p>“Worrying less would have let your ankle heal incorrectly.”</p><p> </p><p>“Stop bringing up my past mistakes!”</p><p> </p><p>“If it starts hurting too bad, please call me back, okay?”</p><p> </p><p>Sokka sighs. “Okay.” He might be a little annoyed about Zuko and Katara both overreacting, but he really does appreciate their concern. “I will. Promise.”</p><p> </p><p>Katara seems satisfied by his response. “Thank you. Goodnight, see you tomorrow. Also Toph says you better send pictures of your injuries to her.”</p><p> </p><p>Sokka laughs. “Of course she would. Tell her I will. Goodnight.”</p><p> </p><p>--</p><p> </p><p>Twenty hours later, Sokka is in the middle of rewrapping his hand when the door opens and Zuko and Azula both rush in, dropping their bags as soon as they’re through the doorway. Azula darts back to the bathroom and Zuko surges forwards towards Sokka. He pulls up a chair. “Do you need help?”</p><p> </p><p>Sokka doesn’t really need help, but he nods anyway because he knows it will make Zuko feel better. He lets Zuko finish wrapping his hand up, and then Zuko is eyeing his knee. The bruise worsened overnight and it’s taking up most of his kneecap at this point. “Are you absolutely sure you’re okay?”</p><p> </p><p>“Zuko.” Sokka tilts Zuko’s head up so he’s looking him in the eye. “I promise I am fine. In a few days, I’ll be good as new. It already hurts a lot less than it did last night.”</p><p> </p><p>Zuko takes a deep breath and nods. “Okay. Right, yeah. I just--” He takes Sokka’s hands in his. “I worry about you because sometimes you don’t worry enough about yourself.”</p><p> </p><p>Sokka wants to argue. He wants to bite back with, <em> “Why wouldn’t I be worried about myself? I’m awesome, of course I want to protect me!” </em>but he knows Zuko is right. Sokka has a tendency to underestimate things like injuries and how long he can last on two hours of sleep and four cups of coffee. So Sokka just says. “Thank you,” and presses a kiss to Zuko’s knuckles.</p><p> </p><p>Zuko cleans out Sokka’s knee injury again before putting a band-aid on it and helping him stand up. Druk trots out into the kitchen, tail wagging. He must have been asleep when Zuko and Azula barged into the house.</p><p> </p><p>Zuko glares down at his dog. “You need to stop chasing rabbits.”</p><p> </p><p>Druk just looks up at Zuko.</p><p> </p><p>Zuko bends down and scoops Druk up. “I hope you apologized to Sokka.” His tone is angry, but his eyes are always soft when he's looking at Druk.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka reaches forward and pats Druk’s head. “He doesn’t need to. How could I stay mad at someone so cute?”</p><p> </p><p>Iroh swings the door open and Druk begins to bark and squirm, so Zuko sets him down. The puppy rushes over to Iroh, happily scurrying around his feet.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka can walk on his own, but he lets Zuko help him over to the couch where they both promptly collapse. They situate themselves so Zuko is sitting upright on one end and Sokka is laying his head on Zuko’s lap, legs stretched out over the rest of the couch. He’s hoping his knee injury will stop Azula from sitting on his legs.</p><p> </p><p>Sokka reaches up and puts one of his hands on Zuko’s cheek. Zuko looks down at him. “Why are your hands always so cold?”</p><p> </p><p>“You’ve been gone <em> all weekend</em>. I missed my personal heater.”</p><p> </p><p>“I was gone for a day and a half,” Zuko corrects. He moves Sokka’s hand away from his face. “And If you’re going to use me as your personal heater, please do not use my face.”</p><p> </p><p>“Sure thing, dude,” Sokka says before immediately lifting up Zuko’s shirt just enough to press his palms against Zuko’s stomach.</p><p> </p><p>“Sokka!” Zuko shouts, jumping slightly. “I know you’re injured, but I <em>will</em> push you off the couch.”</p><p> </p><p>“No you wouldn’t.” Sokka moves his hands anyways. </p><p> </p><p>Zuko wraps his hands around Sokka’s. He leans down and kisses Sokka’s forehead. “You’re right. I wouldn’t.”</p>
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